Ideas for Investments

[rthak]

Hi all

I follow this board with interest and am attracted to investment trusts and unit trusts as an investment idea.

I have had a company pension scheme for some time which has been invested in their default fund which has not done badly but the charges are excessive (platform fee of c. 2.5% per annum). I've decided to move this cash out of the platform and transferred to interactive investor.

The amount I have to invest is just over £100,000 and I am looking to invest that over the next 12 months or so. I am perfectly aware of the political climate and all the risks that go with it but I am at least 20 years away from retirement so am happy to take a long term view.

With that all in mind, I would be very interested to hear ideas from you which I can research further. The only thing that I wouldn't touch is trusts that trade on a premium - I just can't justify that in my own head no matter how good the manager is. As I said above, I am happy to take a long term view so funds which carry a high risk rating don't phase me so long as I have sufficient diversification.

Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts.

Rthak

[StOmer]

Hi,
It is really important to understand your appetite for risk before going too deeply into selecting investments. Many Investment Trusts are currently trading on historically low discounts after a long bull run, this could mean they fall further than you may expect them to. For example some popular IT's have seen daily falls and gains exceeding 3% recently. To investigate IT's you can find lots of information on the AIC website at https://www.theaic.co.uk/

Money Observer offer a selection of portfolios to consider at https://www.moneyobserver.com/money-observer-portfolios

Another option would be to give some thought to a 1-year subscription to the John Baron portfolios at http://www.johnbaronportfolios.co.uk/ he charges £170 a year which gives you access to (I think) 8 portfolios of which you can get a good overview of the IT world. He also does a monthly column in Investors Chronicle where he discusses two of his portfolios (Summer & Autumn)

Funds (OEICS & Unit Trusts) can be investigated through the Trustnet website at https://www.trustnet.com/

I find it useful to go through the reports from some of the fund houses and IT Companies, good ones are Jupiter Merlin fund reports https://www.jupiteram.com/ and BMO Managed Portfolios (Growth & Income) https://www.theaic.co.uk/companydata/C13G8
Both of those sources give an idea how the professionals are running a collection of funds & IT's.

In my own experience, less is more so I prefer to limit the number of investments I hold. Currently have 10 which is enough for me, certainly I would struggle to keep track of the 41 as held by BMO Managed Growth but then they do have a large team to do the donkey work. I also stick with IT's as I find it easier to review the smaller universe. I am using funds for my daughter though as for IT's you either ned a cheap monthly purchase option of to do deals of a min size around £1500 otherwise you are paying too much percentage wise for dealing and stamp duty. For my daughter, her first three funds are Lindsell Train Global, Fundsmith and Blue Whale Growth. All quite similar and Global as the intention is to kick off with a good core before broadening the portfolio.

Hope that helps,

[Dod101]

St Omer has given you a few ideas of where to look for info but you need to decide what it is you are looking for. Fundamentally I assume growth in value/capital in that you are still working and plan to do so for the next 20 years. Over that period a lot can happen but I think a geographic spread is sensible as is a variety of investment styles. You are not presumably too concerned about dividends but that does not matter much in itself as you can usually reinvest them fairly cheaply anyway. The discount/premuim is not something to worry about during your research; it will matter when you come to buy, although over the long term it really does not I think matter very much except for very large premiums such as with the Lindsell Train IT where even the manager (Nick Train) has advised against buying at a very large premium.

There is a good thread at the moment (on this Board) re the Investment Trust Handbook 2019 which I recommend you download and read at your leisure. It contains a lot of very good advice and thought from many leading IT managers.

We could all suggest ITs you ought to consider but they will simply be, in my case at least, mostly those that I hold and we all have our own reasons for holding what we do and so any individual portfolio may not be what you are looking for.

Dod

[tjh290633]

I suggest that you look at four ITs. One global IT such as FCIT or WTAN, one commodity based one, one property REIT and one aimed at emerging countries.

The global one ought to be the major chunk, say 50%, and share the rest out between the other three. They will not perform identically, but don't be put off by that. The global trusts cover a lot of ground, which means that you don't need a load of specialised trusts.

Make your own choice of which ITs to buy.

TJH

[rthak]

Many thanks all.

I think my first port of call is to get through the guide posted on another post and take things from there!

[Avantegarde]

Please read the FT guide to investment trusts, written by John Baron: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Financial-Time ... ent+trusts
It is extremely useful and informative.

[LooseCannon101]

I would look at global trusts such as Alliance, Witan or F&C (FCIT). The latter which I own, is highly diversified and has over 450 companies in it's portfolio.

I would check out the performance e.g. total return including dividend re-investment of each trust over at least 10 years and if data is available over 20 years. This should be a long-term, buy and hold investment and so a little extra effort at the beginning is recommended.

[Peter1B1]

I'm sure you have given thought as to how you will hold this 'cash' and investments. If the sum has come from a company pension fund then I imagine that you had to pay (?40%) tax on to get it out. If not, then I guess the 'cash' is new money; or the company pf gives you flexibility to shelter/buy other assets within that pension fund.

I would explore your options to get tax relief 'on the way in' via your own SIPP (which I think you can hold and run in parallel with a company arrangement - do your own research). Or to put it in an ISA and look for tax relief on the way out in 20 years. It is important to get the structure right as tax is of course a significant factor in performance.

Peter1B1